West Virginia prospect Johnathan Aiken is starting to get pay-back for a life lived the hard way.

The 5-foot-11, 180-pound safety-cornerback from Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.) Prep, lost his mother to gunfire in Dania Beach. She died when he was four years old. At eight, he was put into the foster care program when his grandmother, Mattie Graham, stepped in.